Identifying the Gap

With 28% of our freshmen behind cohort, we identified these students as our “closing the gap” group and created several interventions to help them be successful. At the end of the 14-15 school year, only 71.8% of our freshmen earned enough credit to be promoted to 10th grade. Coupled with this data is the current research showing that most high school dropouts fail at least 25% of their ninth grade courses, while 8% of high school completers experienced the same difficulty (Letgers & Kerr, 2001). Students behind cohort negatively impact our overall school goal, department mission and vision to increase graduation rates.



Interventions

Interventions offered included the creation of a skills lab section for behind cohort students, classroom guidance, GradPoint online course recovery program, 2nd year freshmen celebratory breakfast, and an academic success small group.



Students placed in skills labs received credit, were allotted extra time to complete homework, learned about additional resources, and had extra teacher support. In addition, our Graduation Coach checked in with these students regularly to review grades and academic progress.



In addition, these students received small group services every other week and individual meetings on a biweekly basis. Small group sessions focused on teaching our students how to be academically successful. We also required our students to sign a participation agreement where they agreed to use their planners, attend after school study hall and communicate more with teachers. We coordinated with our Graduation Coach to work with these students, whose primary job is to work with at-risk students who are in jeopardy of dropping out. In between groups, students met with the graduation coach and/or their alpha counselor for individual check ins.



Two of our counselors set up a breakfast to provide positive feedback to encourage student success. These behind cohort students were provided breakfast and a time to visit with their favorite teacher. Students each received a “goody bag” before leaving with words of affirmation from teachers and staff. The goal of this breakfast was to interact with these students positively since they don’t regularly receive very much affirmative feedback.



Results

At the end of the school year, we had 26% of students promoted back to their sophomore cohort. Students earned nearly one more credit, on average, than they did during their freshmen year. (5.29 credits vs. 6.13) We also had 5 students recover credit from Grad Point and 8 students recover credit from summer school. Our group of students who were enrolled in Skills Lab had 41% fewer F’s. While we were pleased with the progress with the closing the gap group, it was only mathematically possible for 9 of our 19 students to recover enough credit to be promoted to 11th grade by the end of the 15-16 school year. Students who participated in the Academic Success Group had more success in the fall than during the spring semester. Lastly, the impact of the 2nd Year Freshmen Breakfast was alarmingly positive with 71% of students having an increase in attendance following the event.



Next Steps

We want to continue the services we provided to help even more students return to cohort status. This year we were more proactive in identifying students behind cohort and connecting them with appropriate interventions. Also, we will look at automatically enrolling our behind cohort students into summer school and Grad Point so they have multiple opportunities to recover credit. In using Grad Point, it is unique in that it will only work for motivated students who have a strong work ethic and put in extra time. Even though the Skills Lab class and check-ins are still in place, our students shared and data showed the small groups should meet all year long rather than only in the fall. We plan to implement more small groups and individual check-ins for students throughout the entire school year. In addition, we plan on sharing the data with staff that positive interactions with students makes a large impact and will work to brainstorm additional interventions in the future. Lastly, while we have a strict policy in our school that seniors must have 6 classes, at minimum, we know that some students are behind cohort and dropping out because of family concerns. We have worked with our administrators to be more flexible with students who need to go to school part time in order to help them graduate with their cohort.

Goal: The number of students out of cohort, for the class of 2018, will decrease by 8% by June 2016.

Target Group: Second year 9th graders

Data Used to Identify Students: Students who did not earn at least 7 credits in the 2014-2015 school year

School Counselor(s): All COUNSELORS: Justin Roadifer, Tammy Simpson, Maribeth Oliver, Sara Papa Graduation Coach: Shannon Madden

ASCA Domain, Mindsets & Behaviors Standard(s): M2, M5, M6, BLS3,BLS4, BLS7, BSMS1, BSMS 2, BSMS4, BSMS5, BSMS6, BSMS7, BSMS8, BSS1, BSS2,BSS5,

Type of Activities to be Delivered in What Manner?: Intervention 1: Academic Success Groups-Group every other week and individual meetings with students in between group meetings Intervention 2: 10th grade classroom guidance Intervention 3: Skills Lab to replace elective and provide academic support Intervention 4: GradPoint Online Courses to recover credit Intervention 5: 2nd Year Freshmen Breakfast

Process Data (Number of students affected): Intervention 1: Target Group: 20/42 9th graders who earned less than 7 credits in the 2014-2015 school year: 5 students were added 2nd semester, but only received biweekly check-ins Intervention 2: Target Group: 42 Total: 305 Intervention 3: Target Group: 19/42 Intervention 4: Target group: 5/42 Intervention 5

Perception Data (Surveys or assessments used): Intervention 1: Pre survey data showed the majority of our students never to sometimes used effective study habits during homework sessions, according to our pre-group survey. 79% never turned off electronics; 50% never studied early; 71% never looked at notes; 93% never used their planner. After completing the group, the majority of our students sometimes to always used good study habits. 57% sometimes turned off electronics; 57% sometimes studied early; 57% sometimes looked at their notes; 29% sometimes used their planner. Intervention 2: Student understanding of graduation requirements: Post: 87% Student understanding of importance of GPA: Post: 75% Student understanding of Hathaway Requirements: Post: 65% Intervention 3: 100% of students reported skills lab was helpful in improving academics Intervention 4: 100 % of students believed GradPoint was helpful in recovering credit Intervention 5: 100% of students that attended provided positive feedback and felt more connected to their teachers

Outcome Data (Achievement, attendance, and/or behavior data): Intervention 1: After the interventions were delivered to our 2nd year freshmen, 26% of our students earned enough credit to promote back to their current grade level. In comparing the number of credits our students earned their first year of school versus their second year, they earned nearly one more credit, on average, than they did during their freshmen year. (5.29 credits vs. 6.13) In reviewing GPA improvement, there was a .14 increase in overall GPA. Intervention 2: 81.8% of Sophomores were promoted 38% of students who had a 2.5 GPA or higher at the end of their sophomore year to qualify for the lowest level of Hathaway scholarship. 83% of sophomores are predicted to get a 17 or higher on the ACT Intervention 3: 20% of target group returned to their cohort after the 2015-2016 school year. Target group had 41% fewer F’s after enrolling in a skills lab Intervention 4: 12% of students recovered credit in GradPoint Intervention 5: 2 weeks following the breakfast, 71% of students had improved attendance

Implications: Intervention 1: After reviewing the data, we were hoping to have more of our students return to their original grade. After further reflection and looking at the data, it was only mathematically possible for 9 out of our 19 (47%) students to recover enough credit to be promoted to 11th grade by the end of the 15-16 school year. Of those students, only 7 could earn enough credit without going to summer school and return to their cohort. Of that, 5 returned to their cohort. We saw that other students had many outstanding attendance issues and earned less credits than their freshmen year. In reviewing the data, we would like to be more diligent about working with students 2nd semester since we saw a decrease in academic performance during this time. Intervention 2: The 10th grade classroom guidance curriculum is helpful in education our students about graduation requirement, importance of GPA, and Hathaway requirement. Counselors will continue to offer this in subsequent years. Intervention 3: Skills labs provide additional academic support to students including: additional time for tests/quizzes, tracking of grades, time to complete homework, access to tutors. Skills labs are very helpful in assisting students needing additional academic support and will be continued to be offered to at-risk students in future years. We will be more proactive in the future to identify students that would benefit from skills labs earlier on in the school year. Intervention 4: In reviewing the data, we would like to encourage students to utilize this program either during the regular school day or in our afterschool program, extended day. This program is unique in that it will only work for motivated students willing to have a strong work ethic and put in extra time. Intervention 5: Students reactions to reading the positive comments were favorable and teachers reported having a continued relationship with these students. The data proves that positive interventions with at-risk students is instrumental in student success. We will have more breakfasts in the future and encourage more students to attend. Last year, only 17/42 students were in attendance.

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